EA on BBC and Radio FM4: What Shamima Begum Shows Us About Dealing with ISIS

Posted by Scott Lucas | Feb 14, 2019 | 1

I joined Austria’s Radio FM4 and BBC Hereford on Thursday to discuss the case of Shamima Begum, the 19-year-old mother who went from London to Syria four years ago to become part of an Islamic State community.

Nine months pregnant, Begum is now in a displaced persons’ camp in northeast Syria, having left the final ISIS enclave in the country. With her two children dying in the past year, she wants to return to the UK to give birth.

I explain why, beyond superficial headlines in the British press, allowing Begum back in Britain is the right move — both on compassionate grounds and as a practical step to meet the ongoing challenge of the Islamic State.

Listen to Radio FM4 at 13:40

Listen to BBC Hereford

About The Author

Scott Lucas

Scott Lucas is Professor of International Politics at the Clinton Institute, University College Dublin; Professor Emeritus of International Politics at the University of Birmingham; and editor-in-chief of EA WorldView.He is a specialist in US and British foreign policy and international relations, especially the Middle East and Iran. Formerly he worked as a journalist in the US, writing for newspapers including the Guardian and The Independent and was an essayist for The New Statesman before he founded EA WorldView in November 2008.

1 Comment

bill anderson on February 15, 2019 at 05:05
This women is a traitor to her country and shares some responsibility for the deaths of her two children.
Now she comes crawling back to the UK seeking free medical care without denouncing ISIS.
Let her in to have her baby then give the baby up for adoption. As for the traitor 10 to 20 years in prison seems about right.
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